To Our Supporters and Ministry Partners,
Thank you AGAIN for investing into the nations through CULTURELink. Your prayers and giving allows us to respond to the needs of our partners and the multiple invitations we receive around the globe. Because of your generosity, 2024 surpassed 2023 as the busiest and most significant year in CULTURELink’s history for international partnerships. As you review the year’s highlights, celebrate with us all that God did.
- The year started strong with six Help! We’re Going On A Short-Term Trip! seminars in the first five months—one in Atlanta, GA, one in Tampa, FL, one in Woodbridge, VA, one in Blacksburg, VA, one closed class with a nonprofit organization in Atlanta, GA, and one closed class with church partner in Landover, MD.
- In January, Ryan Hurlburt conducted a workshop on “Better Daily Debriefing & Re-Entry Preparation” at the annual Mission Connexion Northwest conference, in Portland, OR. CULTURELink was a conference sponsor once again, and Ryan serves on the planning committee.
- During the first three weeks of February, Larry and Karen Ragan traveled to Southeast Asia.
- In Thailand, they spent a week conducting a spiritual life retreat for a mission organization that sends workers all over the unreached regions of Asia. Larry was the preliminary speaker and Karen invested hours in one-on-one meetings encouraging the ladies of the region.
- In Malaysia and Indonesia, the Ragans partnered with Sojourn investigating venues for the 2025 Groundwork east conference.
- Immediately after the Ragans returned, Larry was a special guest at Johnson Ferry Baptist Church’s MOVE Conference, where he spoke to different groups throughout the event.
- In the Spring, Larry and Karen traveled again to the Middle East.
- In Turkey, they met individually with B4T (Business for Transformation) workers and with Persian church leaders.
- In Northern Cypress, the Ragans again served at the Groundwork West Conference, where 1000 workers met for four days of prayer, teaching, and worship where they focused on reaching the Muslim world for Christ. Karen serves year-round on conference’s administrative team. Larry provided pastoral care and counseling to these servants who work in the toughest and most persecuted regions of the world.
- This trip concluded in Jordan, where the Ragans did team building and spiritual enrichment with two different in-country teams.
- Ryan and Katharine Hurlburt, along with their two boys, Asher and Alistair, spent the first two weeks of June in Costa Rica. One goal was to facilitate a new partnership between a Costa Rican church and a US church. They also spent time with our ministry partner, Andy Gordley, who founded the organization Atlas Travel & Study Abroad.
- The Ragans returned to Asia at the end of the Summer.
- In Thailand, the Ragans once again served the OPEN Connect conference to equip and encourage Business for Transformation (B4T) workers. These B4T workers are using businesses to serve in Muslim-majority nations. Larry was asked to teach on spiritual emotional health related to anxiety. However, the majority of his time—over 25 hours—was spent in formal counseling appointments, with several more informal sessions taking place over meals and in hallways.
- After a short break in Vietnam, the Ragans went to South Korea where they again taught and served a team of workers.
- In September, Lancaster County Christian School hosted Ryan in Pennsylvania for a two-day training retreat for their high school seniors in preparation to serve alongside our ministry partner in Costa Rica.
- The Ragans returned to the Middle East for the entire month of October.
- After having the Lebanon portion of their trip canceled as they were heading to the airport due to bombings, the Ragans left a week later for Saudia Arabia (KSA)where Larry did a one-day spiritual retreat for B4T workers. Following that event, he and Karen joined the i60 prayer initiative team for a ten-day prayer conference throughout different regions of KSA.
- Their trip concluded back in Jordan, once again doing team building and worker care events.
- Ryan was invited to share on the topic of “Healthy Partnerships” at Border Perspective’s annual Border Summit in October. Border Perspective equips, educates, and mobilizes people through biblical resources and service-learning trips along the US-Mexico border.
- In November, CULTURELink was a sponsor for the Mission Connexion Southwest conference in Phoenix, AZ. Ryan conducted a pre-conference workshop on trip debriefing, gave a keynote address that challenged assumptions in short-term missions, and co-taught a workshop with Border Perspective’s director, Yonathan Moya, about designing short-term trips in healthy partnerships.
- In December, Ryan traveled to El Salvador to explore future opportunities. He then returned to Costa Rica to teach a class on “Cross-Cultural Discipleship” for the Gap Year program of our ministry partner, Atlas Travel & Study Abroad.
- From the relationships formed and strengthened on the trips mentioned above, Larry has been in regular communication with several workers in the Middle East, North Africa, and the Balkans via Zoom for follow-up care sessions. These servants join the dozens of other workers CULTURELink already mentors around the globe.
- CULTURELink began consulting with a church partner to incorporate our short-term team discipleship curriculum into their online learning platform. Along with multiple modules of written content, together we produced videos to supplement their team members’ online experience and in-person meetings.
- CULTURELink concluded its in-depth consulting role with an Atlanta-area church. For nearly three years, we worked with the church’s leadership to strengthen global partnerships, develop policies and procedures, and create a mobilization process for short-term teams and long-term workers.
- Since 2010, the total number of leaders CULTURELink has trained is over 3200. These servants have gone on to mobilize teams and conduct ministry in 138 nations.
- CULTURELink continues to provide leadership and resources for a network of other Atlanta-area nonprofits, now known as the Atlanta Missions Collective. Alongside other ministry leaders, the Collective hosts a monthly gathering of staff and mobilizers from a variety of churches and missions organizations. These events are helping ministries better network and more effectively collaborate.
- CULTURELink continues to invest in and serve our partners at Royal Kids School in Mombasa, Kenya.
From training church leaders, to restoring tired and wounded missionaries serving in the toughest regions of the world, to equipping ministries and churches to strategically impact the globe, your partnership allows CULTURELink’s mission—making disciples of those who make disciples of all nations—to be realized. You do more than support programs; you transform lives!
“Our family has been blessed by the pastoral care received by CULTURELink. Larry and his team continually offer biblical counseling and encouragement, which renews and refreshes our vision for cross-cultural ministry and thriving as a family overseas. The CULTURELink team has always been ready at a minute’s notice to offer pastoral care! Larry is available as a listening ear, a voice of truth and encouragement and has always been willing to partner with us in the work of bringing the Gospel of Jesus to the nations. We have been blessed by the vision and heartbeat of CULTURELink.”
A & B, Missionaries to Unreach Peoples